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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447045744070 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- representing02@hotmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "YAHOO/WINDOWS"<representing02@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:32:01 +0100
Subject: YAHOO AND WINDOM LIVE
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Yahoo Awards
Center
124 Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester M60 2DB -
United Kingdom
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money
of SIX HUNDRED,THOUSAND POUNDS GREAT BRITAIN Pounds ( £600,000.00) for
the 2009 Promotion which is Organized by YAHOO AWARDS & WINDOWS
LIVE.
YAHOO! in
collaboration with WINDOW LIVE collects all the email addresses of the
people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to
Yahoo and Hotmail
and few from other e-mail providers. Six people are selected monthly to
benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.
&n
bsp; PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
Winners shall
be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Centre. Yahoo Prize Award
must be claimed not later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification.
Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
Stated below are your identification numbers:
BATCH NUMBER: YPA/09/APA-
43658
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2009234522
PIN: &
nbsp; 1209
These numbers fall within the England Location file and you are requested to contact our
fiduciary agent in Manchester and send your winning identification numbers to him;
Agent Name: REV TIMES DAVIS
E-Mail: representing02@hotmail.com
Phone Number: +44 70457 44070
As
soon as our agent hears from you, he shall commence the process that
will facilitate the release of your prize to you with immediate effect.
Congratulations!! once again.
Yours in service,
Dr.(Sir) Richard
Adams
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WARNING!
Do not tell people about your Prize Award
until your money is successfully handed over to you to avoid
disqualification that may arise from double claim.
You may also receive similar e-mails from people potraying to be other Organizations Yahoo Inc. This
is solely to collect your personal information from you and lay claim
over your winning. In event that you receive any e-mail similar to the
notification letter that was sent to you, Kindly delete it from your
mail box and give no further correspondence to such person or body.
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Anti-fraud resources:
